Duke Elric - Michael Moorcock [54]
“Vitality?”
“Perhaps.”
“Humanity!” grunted Count Smiorgan Baldhead. “That is what your race has lost, Prince Elric. I say nothing of you—but look at Earl Saxif D'Aan. How can one so wise be such a simpleton? He lost everything—pride, love, power—because he had no humanity. And what humanity he had—why, it destroyed him.”
“Some say it will destroy me,” said Elric, “but perhaps ‘humanity’ is, indeed, what I seek to bring to Melnibone, Count Smiorgan.”
“Then you will destroy your kingdom!” said Smiorgan bluntly. “It is too late to save Melnibone.”
“Perhaps I can help you find what you seek, Prince Elric,” said Duke Avan Astran quietly. “Perhaps there is time to save Melnibone, if you feel such a mighty nation is in danger.”
“From within,” said Elric. “But I speak too freely.”
“For a Melnibonean, that is true.”
“How did you come to hear of this city?” Elric wished to know. “No other man I have met in the Young Kingdoms has heard of R'lin K'ren A'a.”
“It is marked on a map I have.”
Deliberately, Elric chewed his meat and swallowed it. “The map is doubtless a forgery.”
“Perhaps. Do you recall anything else of the legend of R'lin K'ren A'a?”
“There is the story of the Creature Doomed to Live.” Elric pushed the food aside and poured wine for himself. “The city is said to have received its name because the Lords of the Higher Worlds once met there to decide the rules of the Cosmic Struggle. They were overheard by the one inhabitant of the city who had not flown when they came. When they discovered him, they doomed him to remain alive for ever, carrying the frightful knowledge in his head …”
“I have heard that story, too. But the one that interests me is that the inhabitants of R'lin K'ren A'a never returned to their city. Instead they struck northwards and crossed the sea. Some reached an island we now call Sorcerer's Isle while others went further—blown by a great storm—and came at length to à large island inhabited by dragons whose venom caused all it touched to burn … to Melnibone, in fact.”
“And you wish to test the truth of that story. Your interest is that of a scholar?”
Duke Avan laughed. “Partly. But my main interest in R'lin K'ren A'a is more materialistic. For your ancestors left a great treasure behind them when they fled their city. Particularly they abandoned an image of Arioch, the Lord of Chaos—a monstrous image, carved in jade, whose eyes were two huge, identical gems of a kind unknown anywhere else in all the lands of the Earth. Jewels from another plane of existence. Jewels which could reveal all the secrets of the Higher Worlds, of the past and the future, of the myriad planes of the cosmos …”
“All cultures have similar legends. Wishful thinking, Duke Avan, that is all…”
“But the Melniboneans had a culture unlike any others. The Melniboneans are not true men, as you well know. Their powers are superior, their knowledge far greater …”
“It was once thus,” Elric said. “But that great power and knowledge is not mine. I have only a fragment of it…”
“I did not seek you in Bakshaan and later in Jadmar because I believed you could verify what I have heard. I did not cross the sea to Filkhar, then to Argimiliar and at last to Pikarayd because I thought you would instantly confirm all that I have spoken of—I sought you because I think you the only man who would wish to accompany me on a voyage which would give us the truth or falsehood to these legends once and for all.”
Elric tilted his head and drained his wine-cup.
“Cannot you do that for yourself? Why should you desire my company on the expedition? From what I have heard of you, Duke Avan, you are not one who needs support in his venturings …”
Duke Avan laughed. “I went alone to Elwher when my men deserted me in the Weeping Waste. It is not in my nature to know physical fear. But I have survived my travels this long because I have shown proper foresight and caution before setting off. Now it seems I must face dangers I cannot anticipate